Three Constitutional Programs Applied against Political Crisis: Systems of Government and Governmental Stability in Large Democracies

Abstract

The paper presents a comparative investigation on the political institutions of the 18 largest democracies in population and Portugal. Subsequently it assesses the role of these institutional configurations in governmental stability. Two views on government systems are being proposed: (a) the traditional, presidentialism, parliamentarism, or semi-presidentialism; and (b) a cross-cutting one, focused on constitutional programming against political crises, classified as rigid, resilient, or flexible. The research relies on logistic regression models and panel data. It is proposed that flexible constitutional programs (in parliamentarisms and semi-presidentialism) present lower governmental stability. The results are subjected to a comparative analysis that validates the interpretation and highlights the institutional characteristics whose intentionality is the production of governmental stability.